Intesa Sanpaolo Life, the life assurance wing of one of Italy’s largest banks, has been fined €1 million by Ireland’s Central Bank for breaches of the country’s Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Act.

The Central Bank identified four continuous breaches occurring for nearly four years since the Act went into effect in 2010 involving the company’s risk assessment; customer due diligence; suspicious transaction reports; and anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing (AML/CFT) policies and procedures.

Brenda O’Neill, Head of Enforcement Investigations at the Central Bank, said the organisation ”has responsibility for monitoring and enforcing the compliance of life insurers based in Ireland” with the 2010 Act.

O’Neill explained: “This includes insurers such as Intesa that ‘passport’ in order to operate in other EU member states on a freedom of services basis without establishing branches in those other member states.”